1.06.2011

“The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.” ~Dorothy Sayers

Meal times are often a trial as Chickadee gets a little over-excited about the the two things she most missed as a small child: food and companionship. If I leave the table, it gets worse; she shrieks and plays and can fritter away a couple of hours at the table, three times a day.

We have implemented a 30 minute maximum. After 30 minutes, the food is put in the fridge for the next meal. That resolved the fritter problem, but she wasn't eating enough and was still prone to shrieking.

iTunes has saved me. I have downloaded Seeds of Praise - Seeds Family Worship, StoryNory Bible Podcasts, Paws and Tales Podcasts, Kids4Life Podcasts, 100 Bible Stories 100 Bible Songs, and more. The 30 minutes for breakfast are now also 30 minutes of morning devotions. There's teaching and singing and best of all, Dandy will not tolerate shrieking, as he wants to hear.

1.05.2011

We have played our sacred Christmas playlists all season, and though we tire of the songs eventually, I love the spiritual food they offer. I'm not quite ready to go back to bluegrass and pop yet, so I've gathered together three hours of hymns to listen to. All arrangements are pretty pared down, which is how I like it. If you like the over-puffed choir and electronic embellishment sound, don't click here. If not, do click, you may find your January favorites:

1.04.2011

We've moved some of the children's curriculum to online/CD-Rom material. Of all that we are trying, Alpha Omega's Monarch is my favorite. Obviously the scope and sequence and delivery all pass muster or I wouldn't even have given them a chance. In addition, I like . . .
. . . that the children's daily work is listed on their homescreens.
. . . that I can access their lessons, their progress etc. from my computer (it's all online).
. . . that I set a start and a finish day and the program spreads the work out.
. . . that I can cancel a "School Day" and the program bumps the rest of the year's work accordingly.
. . . that it comes with a readable "Scope and Sequence" overview so that I know what is coming up.
. . . that the daily worksheets and quizzes and tests are 90% graded by the program.
. . . that a Godly worldview permeates the material.
. . . that there is a nice mix of worksheet style tasks and project-style tasks.
. . . that it is easy to get started with and simplifies my tasks.
. . . that the kids enjoy it.

Hope for America

The American concept of independent nationhood inscribed in our Declaration cannot be maintained if we are going to pursue a policy that undermines the independence of other nations. ~ Rep. Ron Paul 7/02/07

Build a Chicken Coop!

Who Writes All This, Anyhow?

Here I chatter about books, parenting, election 2008, recipes, teaching college writing, and the adventures of getting settled in with our two freshly (Fall 06) adopted school-age children from Russia. This blog is chapter two; chapter one is posted at Jamie & Suzanne go to Russia.
I live in the City of Subdued Excitement, Cascadia, Land of the Free.

I am the wife of a man I call My Gift from a Generous God. I am mama to two lovely children, Dandy and Chickadee that became ours in September 2006 in a court-room in Siberia. I am the daughter of two people
whom I love and admire. One of them, my dad, is a new (Dec 06) paraplegic.

In my previous life (B.C. - before children), I was a college English teacher, specializing in composition and ESL composition.

Going Private

As of August 2010, posts about my kids are appearing at a new hidden blog for their privacy. If you would like to continue to be part of the inner workings of parenting these kids, you'll need to send an email to me a sznnchndlr at gmail dot com and I'll draw a map for you. It would be nice -- if you do follow me to the new blog -- that you promise to post lots of supportive comments.